PowerPoint | SkillCasting

You Suck at PowerPoint

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Scott in PowerPoint

I’ve been creating quite a few PowerPoint presentations for clients lately. This SlideShare presentation was voted as one of the best of the year and sums up the advice I give my clients rather, well, bluntly.

I still see original PowerPoint presentations with the old fashion corporate speak. Lets see if I can describe it for you:

Uses a built-in PowerPoint template

Has a main subject and 5-7 bullet points on the slide

Includes Microsoft clipart

Do you want your presentations to suck? Of course not. But here’s a key: creating good presentations takes time. The ratio is often 30 development hours for a 1 hour presentation. Doesn’t that seem ridiculous? I mean it’s practically a weeks worth of development time that is delivered in a single hour. Who really has time for that?

You do!

If your idea is worth presenting, then prepare to inspire others. Move your cause forward instead of wasting everyone’s time. Because if you’re not willing to put in the work, it just might be better to send a memo.

Watch this presentation and learn how to make your presentations better.

YOU SUCK AT POWERPOINT!

View more presentations from @JESSEDEE.

2 Comments

Duarte’s 5 Presentation Rules

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Scott in Examples, PowerPoint, Video

Nancy Duarte from Duarte Design produced a very polished presentation with their 5 rules for effective presentations. If you’re not familiar with Nancy, she wrote the book Slide:ology – The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. This books is so good, I ordered copies of it for my contractors in 2008. Nancy knows how to develop a great presentation.

Now what I’ve found interesting with this is that she did it entirely in PowerPoint 2010. I know most of her presentations have been done in Keynote. In addition to great presentation tips, this video makes me want to at least look at the new PowerPoint.

Does this mean Microsoft may actually be getting hip?